Find problems, Solve them

Identifying problems is a key to building successful businesses. A lot of times simply “replicating” a model elsewhere doesn’t quite work. Demographics for instance play a crucial role. One of the most successful starts to come out of Pilani city was Mobile Medics (later acquired by Nicholas Piramal) founded by a BITS Pilani team.

Mobile Medics was essentially a private health care system that would compliment the existing government infrastructure. A van equipped with testing equipment and drug supplies would carry a doctor and nurse and reach the villages in the operation radius. They plan to charge each patient Rs.50 ($1.25) as consultation fees. The system is modeled as “treatment at doorstep”, saving the villager from the long and cumbersome journey to the major hospitals.

A couple of months ago my father told me that a student wanted to do something which sounded very much like mobile medics in Hyderabad and had consulted him regarding that. A mobile medics like start-up is most likely suited with a rural backdrop in mind, one where there is no health care for miles and hence transport becomes a burden. Doing it in a city isn’t quite feasible especially taking into account the running costs as well as sustainability.

Looking around my hostel, I can think of so many businesses germinating with the simple idea of solving problems. Take BITS for example, the entire campus houses around 4000 students and the major eating joint is around 500 meters from almost every hostel. And students are lazy. Now, an effective business that could spring up here is room delivery. Every restaurant might not be able to employ workers especially for delivery purposes. However, if another new venture was established; one which provided room delivery and had tie ups with every restaurant in Pilani (or at least many of them), this could solve a lot of problems. Generating employment, revenues flowing in are just some of the offshoots, but the major reason for all this is because you are providing a service to people which is really useful to them.

Find problems, solve them.